Question for Freddy Bentivegna

Terry Ardeno

Terry Ardeno

I still love my wife
Silver Member
Freddy,
There's literally more than thousands of pool stories, some more memorable than others.
One story that I've always been interested in hearing about "the REST of the story" is the time you were playing Bob Ogburn for $2,500.00 and your stakehorse (and pal?) Johnny "SugarShack Novak simply walked off mid match with the 25 spot, leaving you, in effect, an air barrel.

Here's my question(s)....
Did you "fire" SS after that or use him again later on because of his "muscle" and / or friendship?

What was Johnny's explanation to you as to why he walked off?

What happened when you told Big Bob what Novack had done?

That story always left me wondering about what else happened and how everything panned out in the end.
 
Good questions

Terry Ardeno said:
Freddy,
There's literally more than thousands of pool stories, some more memorable than others.
One story that I've always been interested in hearing about "the REST of the story" is the time you were playing Bob Ogburn for $2,500.00 and your stakehorse (and pal?) Johnny "SugarShack Novak simply walked off mid match with the 25 spot, leaving you, in effect, an air barrel.

Here's my question(s)....
Did you "fire" SS after that or use him again later on because of his "muscle" and / or friendship?

What was Johnny's explanation to you as to why he walked off?

What happened when you told Big Bob what Novack had done?

That story always left me wondering about what else happened and how everything panned out in the end.
Click to expand...


While Sugar Shack was a for real lunatic, we were still lifelong friends and he had previously saved my life when he took on Big Henry "Duke" Baker. That was just the kind of stuff that he would do. Just ask Danny Di who was also his friend. His explanation was that it looked like I was going to lose anyway. Bob's backers were two killers from Atlanta. The heat went to the bartender who was supposed to be holding the stakes. I was later confronted by a couple of gorillas in Congress Bowl in Miami. They wanted to know where Sugar Shack was at. SS had already called Congress Bowl and left word if anyone wanted to find him, he was at the Miscue lounge in Ft. Lauderdale (the place where Bob and I had played originally). My reputation, and Bob vouching for me, got me off the hook. They made the mistake of putting all the heat and all the threats on Sugar Shack. Later, when they discovered he might kill them before they kill him, they finally just dropped the matter.

the Beard
 
freddy the beard said:
While Sugar Shack was a for real lunatic, we were still lifelong friends and he had previously saved my life when he took on Big Henry "Duke" Baker. That was just the kind of stuff that he would do. Just ask Danny Di who was also his friend. His explanation was that it looked like I was going to lose anyway. Bob's backers were two killers from Atlanta. The heat went to the bartender who was supposed to be holding the stakes. I was later confronted by a couple of gorillas in Congress Bowl in Miami. They wanted to know where Sugar Shack was at. SS had already called Congress Bowl and left word if anyone wanted to find him, he was at the Miscue lounge in Ft. Lauderdale (the place where Bob and I had played originally). My reputation, and Bob vouching for me, got me off the hook. They made the mistake of putting all the heat and all the threats on Sugar Shack. Later, when they discovered he might kill them before they kill him, they finally just dropped the matter.

the Beard
Click to expand...

Many thanks Beard!

One more question please.

If you could have SS or Daddy Warbucks, each in their respective primes, and could choose only one of them to be your tush-hog, who gets the job?

Me, I'd be with Cokes forever, but I would love to know who YOU would choose and why.
 
Terry Ardeno said:
Many thanks Beard!

One more question please.

If you could have SS or Daddy Warbucks, each in their respective primes, and could choose only one of them to be your tush-hog, who gets the job?

Me, I'd be with Cokes forever, but I would love to know who YOU would choose and why.
Click to expand...

From what I've heard, Cokes was a B-AA- BADASSSOB!!

I heard somewhere that he at one time ***** slapped Baby Face Nelson.
 
Common knowledge!

ironman said:
From what I've heard, Cokes was a B-AA- BADASSSOB!!

I heard somewhere that he at one time ***** slapped Baby Face Nelson.
Click to expand...

Terry, I am aware of your chosen profession. Are you aware that it is an accepted fact that Coke's sent more than one officer of the law to his final resting place. I was not there, but it is Evansville,Indiana folkelore.
No one crossed Hubert Cokes and got away with it.

Dick
 
SJDinPHX said:
Terry, I am aware of your chosen profession. Are you aware that it is an accepted fact that Coke's sent more than one officer of the law to his final resting place. I was not there, but it is Evansville,Indiana folkelore.
No one crossed Hubert Cokes and got away with it.

Dick
Click to expand...


Dick,
Yes, I am aware of that fact. And plenty more besides that also! He is also "reputed" to have been "linked" to Arnold Rothstein's demise, if you catch my drift. And do you remember that infamous robbery outside Johnston City where some of the players got held up at gunpoint and tied to trees? "Rumor" has it that Cokes put out big bucks to find out who pulled that heist. And supposedly, they were never able to do another one. Or anything else for that matter.....Ironman pretty much summed up old Hubert.

That being as it may, I've had a long interest in Hubert Cokes. If you do a search on AZB, I've posted plenty about him. What got me interested in him in the first place was when he took Varner on the road and unleashed "the little gorilla" (Cokes' nickname for Nick because of his tenacity & toughness, especially under pressure). After studying him further, I really became interested in his life.

Bottom line for me would be the fact that Cokes was NOT a lunatic, he had titanium balls, no fear whatsoever of anyone, always carried heat and was connected to some other very bad men. I can't for the life of me ever see him pulling some of the Sugar Shack stunts. For all his orneriness, Daddy Warbucks had that old time thing called "honor". It would be hard to picture him "dishonoring" his hard earned reputation as a no-nonsense high stakes backer by walking off with the $ mid match. Novack always sounded to be unpredictable. With Cokes, you knew that if he was in your corner, he was in your corner. Even guys who hated him still called him Mr Cokes. I would say that most everybody feared Cokes more than SS. Novack was more of an "independent operator" who could probably have beaten Cokes in a street fight if each were in his respective primes. Novack was, from what I know, strictly "hands on", while Cokes, who also liked the "hands on" approach, really loved the guns drawn approach better.

I am very interested in all you guys' opinions & thoughts on this subject. Lots of you guys probably know things about him that I don't. But I'm especially interested in Freddy's take on who HE would have of those two.

And Dick, I still can't thank you enough for that special favor you did for me. So appreciated! Thanks buddy!
 
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No contest

Terry Ardeno said:
Many thanks Beard!

One more question please.

If you could have SS or Daddy Warbucks, each in their respective primes, and could choose only one of them to be your tush-hog, who gets the job?

Me, I'd be with Cokes forever, but I would love to know who YOU would choose and why.
Click to expand...

As I mentioned earlier in one of my books. Hubert Cokes was the baddest SOB of the first 50 years of the 20th century. That includes fists and guns. Hubert was 6'3 and was never known to have been whipped. In a fist fight, I wouldnt know who to bet on. Sugar Shack was a wild man and feared no one, but even he may have given Cokes a wide berth. Cokes was not wild, he was cold-blooded, he shot a very bad guy in the kneecaps when he was 70 plus and watched him bleed to death. He had a gun battle with the Sheriff of Hot Springs AR, he outdrew him and killed him. He carried 3 pistols at all times, what more can I say. Sugar Shack was my friend and one of my heroes, but Cokes was a legend.

the Beard
 
You're probably right

jay helfert said:
Johnny "Sugar Shack" Novak was feared. MR. Cokes was Respected!
Click to expand...


You're probably right, Jay. Now that I think back, when I was in Johnston City with Sugar Shack, even he referred to Hubert as Mr. Cokes. Actually, everybody referred to him as, Mr. Cokes.

the Beard

I just put a video up of Boston Shorty and Wimpy in 1967 playing 1pkt in Johnston City. I've never seen it anywhere else before. Http://johnstoncityvideos.blogspot.com/
 
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freddy the beard said:
You're probably right, Jay. Now that I think back, when I was in Johnston City with Sugar Shack, even he referred to Hubert as Mr. Cokes. Actually, everbody referred to him as, Mr. Cokes.

the Beard

I just put a video up of Boston Shorty and Wimpy in 1967 playing 1pkt in Johnston City. I've never seen it anywhere else before. Http://johnstoncityvideos.blogspot.com/
Click to expand...
I posted last year sometime when it was on stage 6 Divx but the site was shut down and all the vids are gone,glad its back up for people to see,some good footage there. :)
 
SJDinPHX said:
Terry, I am aware of your chosen profession. Are you aware that it is an accepted fact that Coke's sent more than one officer of the law to his final resting place. I was not there, but it is Evansville,Indiana folkelore.
No one crossed Hubert Cokes and got away with it.

Dick
Click to expand...

Them people down in Evansville Indiana are some Bad MOFOs!!!!
 
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